There are a number of different medicament containers on the market that have different properties. One of the more common medicament containers is the syringe type which is arranged with an injection needle fixedly attached to the proximal end thereof. The syringe is arranged with a protective cover of the injection needle that is removable prior to delivery of a dose of medicament.
A type of protective cover that has gained market shares is the so called rigid needle shields or RNS. The RNS is designed with a soft core made e.g. of rubber or thermoplastic elastomer, which encloses and supports an injection needle. The core is surrounded by a shell of rigid material such as hard plastic, e.g. polypropylene. With such a needle shield, a good protection of the injection needle is obtained.
The RNS has a rather large diameter due to its design when compared to for example a flexible needle shield. The diameter of the RNS may be even larger than the diameter of the syringe. This may cause problems when a medicament container with an RNS is to be placed in a medicament container holder. The syringe is sometimes to be held against moving in the proximal direction by a flange on the body of the syringe resting against a support surface of the medicament container holder. Also, the syringe is often introduced from the distal end of the medicament container. To accommodate the syringe, the diameter of the medicament container holder must be somewhat larger than the diameter of the RNS and thus significantly larger than the diameter of the body of the syringe, which means too much play between the syringe and the medicament container holder in the radial direction, and results in rattling of the components.
Furthermore, if the syringe is to be held by a medicament container holder at a neck portion of the syringe, whereby the proximal end of the medicament container holder needs to be arranged with inwardly directed ledges, the RNS is in the way when the syringe and the RNS are inserted in the medicament container holder from the distal direction. One solution is to have a proximal part of the medicament container holder flexible in the generally radial direction such that it may flex out when the RNS is passing and then flex back when the RNS has passed the ledges, which ledges may then be positioned between the RNS and the neck portion of the body of the syringe.
One such solution is disclosed in document WO 2013/083618 where resilient sections are arranged in a syringe carrier. The end portions of the resilient sections are arranged with shoulder portions to be positioned in a gap between an RNS and a barrel of a syringe, such that the resilient sections are deflected radially by a passing RNS. When the RNS has passed, the resilient sections are returned to the non-deflected position and the shoulder sections may engage the circumferential gap between the body of the syringe and the RNS. It is stated that the shoulder sections prevent the syringe from moving in a forward axial direction relative to the syringe carrier. However, it is well known that the tolerances on manufactured syringes may vary significantly, which may cause the syringe to be fitted very loosely or not being supported properly in the radial direction when the resilient sections are returned to their non-deflected state, causing a rattling of the medicament container in the syringe carrier.